Member Sign In

You are being directed to ZacksTrade, a division of LBMZ Securities and licensed broker-dealer. ZacksTrade and Zacks.com are separate companies. The web link between the two companies is not a solicitation or offer to invest in a particular security or type of security. ZacksTrade does not endorse or adopt any particular investment strategy, any analyst opinion/rating/report or any approach to evaluating indiv idual securities.

If you wish to go to ZacksTrade, click OK. If you do not, click Cancel.

Meanwhile, SkyWest’s (SKYW - Free Report) board of directors approved a 20% hike in its quarterly dividend to 12 cents per share (annualized 48 cents a share). Also, SkyWest was in the news when it unveiled its January traffic numbers.

1. Spirit Airlines’ fourth-quarter 2018 earnings (excluding 4 cents from non-recurring items) of $1.38 per share were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. However, the bottom line improved significantly year over year. Revenues totaled $862.8 million, which outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $852.2 million and improved 29.4% year over year. The upside can be attributed to 27% and 7.6% rise in non-ticket revenues and operating yields, respectively.

For the first quarter of 2019, the company expects total revenue per available seat mile (TRASM) to increase approximately 5% year over year. This is certainly a conservative outlook, given the airline’s fourth-quarter TRASM improvement of 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. (Read more: Spirit Q4 Earnings Meet Estimates, Q1 TRASM View Weak).

.2. SkyWest announced that its board of directors has approved a new share repurchase program worth $250 million. Notably, this replaces the $100 million buyback program, which was cleared in February 2017. Also, the regional carrier raised its quarterly dividend by 20%. (Read more: SkyWest Rewards Investors With Dividend Hike & New Buyback).

In a separate development, SkyWest reported a 5.6% (6,187) year-over-year increase in block hours (a measure of aircraft utilization) for January. SkyWest’s dual class fleet (E175, CRJ900 and CRJ700) accounted for 65.7% of the carrier’s total block-hour production compared with approximately 58.8% a year ago. (Read more: SkyWest Reports Increase in January Block Hours).

3. In a bid to upgrade its fleet, Azul intends to add 21 next-generation aircraft in its fleet this year, which indicates an increase of eight such aircraft from the previous announcement. Moreover, the carrier aims to retire 15 Embraer E195 E1s from its fleet. According to the previous plan, the company announced the retirement of eight such planes.(Read more: Azul Ramps up Fleet Renewal Process to Boost Efficiency).

Additionally, consolidated traffic (measured in revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) in January improved 13.5% year over year to 2.6 billion at Azul. The upside was driven by an 11.2% rise in international RPKs and 14.3% increase in domestic RPKs. On a year-over-year basis, consolidated capacity (or available seat kilometers/ASKs) expanded 15.9% to 3.1 billion owing to 16.7% growth in international capacity and 15.7% rise in domestic capacity. (Read more: Azul Posts a Rise in January Traffic, Load Factor Down).

4. At Allegiant, traffic for the total system including scheduled service and fixed fee contract — measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs) — dipped 1.5% on a year-over-year basis to 864.22 million. System capacity, calculated in available seat miles (ASMs), also slid 1.6% to 1.08 billion in January. As capacity declined more than the fall in traffic, load factor inched up 10 basis points year over year to 80%.

5. At Hawaiian Airlines, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Hawaiian Holdings (HA), revenue passenger miles increased 4.8% to 1.43 billion in January. Available seat miles also climbed 4.6% to 1.7 billion in the month. Load factor inched up 20 basis points to 84.3% as traffic growth outweighed capacity expansion. However, the number of passengers transported dropped 1.5% year over year to 958,548 in the same period. Read more: Hawaiian Airlines' Traffic & Load Factor Rise in January).

Performance

The following table shows the price movement of the major airline players over the past week and during the last six months.

The table above shows that most airline stocks traded in the green in the past week leading to the NYSE ARCA Airline Index gaining 0.5%. Over the last six months, the sector tracker appreciated 1.5% driven by impressive gains at GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes (GOL - Free Report) and Spirit Airlines during the period.

Resources

Client Support

Follow Us

Zacks Mobile App

Zacks Research is Reported On:

Yahoo

MSN

Marketwatch

Nasdaq

Forbes

Investors.com

Morningstar

This page has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved or endorsed by the companies represented herein. Each of the company logos represented herein are trademarks of Verizon Media; Microsoft Corporation; Nasdaq, Inc.; Dow Jones & Company; Forbes Media, LLC; Investor's Business Daily, Inc.; and Morningstar, Inc.

At the center of everything we do is a strong commitment to independent research and sharing its profitable discoveries with investors. This dedication to giving investors a trading advantage led to the creation of our proven Zacks Rank stock-rating system. Since 1988 it has more than doubled the S&P 500 with an average gain of +25.28% per year. These returns cover a period from January 1, 1988 through February 4, 2019. Zacks Rank stock-rating system returns are computed monthly based on the beginning of the month and end of the month Zacks Rank stock prices plus any dividends received during that particular month. A simple, equally-weighted average return of all Zacks Rank stocks is calculated to determine the monthly return. The monthly returns are then compounded to arrive at the annual return. Only Zacks Rank stocks included in Zacks hypothetical portfolios at the beginning of each month are included in the return calculations. Zacks Ranks stocks can, and often do, change throughout the month. Certain Zacks Rank stocks for which no month-end price was available, pricing information was not collected, or for certain other reasons have been excluded from these return calculations.

Visit performance for information about the performance numbers displayed above.

We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies, revised Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions of Service.